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Origin

Hungarian

Form

Barrel

Size

N/A

Description

MoreWine! and MoreBeer! are proud to present quality Hungarian oak barrels from Vadai. Made from the same tight-grained, Quercus Peterea/Sessile oak as found in the French forests of Nevers and Alliers, Hungarian oak has long been sought out by winemakers for its ability to bring weight and minerality to a wine while highlighting the original fruit!

Please Note: We have found that these barrels can be up to 10% larger than their stated volume. Please be aware of this when purchasing a barrel and planning to have topping wine.

The wood:
Sourced from the steep, rocky hillsides of the renowned Zemplen forest, the trees grow in a unique soil with a high mineral content. The wood used for Vadai's barrels is selected from 100 year-old trees that are air-dried for three years before being crafted into barrels.

The results:
The finished barrels have a high perceived-vanillin content along with bittersweet chocolate, subtle black pepper, roasted coffee, and leather notes. They gently structure the wine in a restrained and elegant way that never steps on the fruit (a quality that makes the Vadai barrels ideally suited for smaller sized lots where overpowering the wine might be a concern).

The bottom line:
You get a fantastic barrel at great price!

Note: Hungarian barrels have a slightly different shape than French or American barrels. Referred to as gonczi ("goon-see"), a traditional Hungarian barrel is round and squat with a shorter over-all length (as opposed to being drawn-out and oval like their French and American counterparts). This is important to keep in mind when organizing your cellar (stacking barrels, etc.). We recommend cutting your own wooden chocks to keep the barrels in place and raised off the floor during ageing/storage (hardwoods, like oak, are preferred because they are natually more resisant to bacteria and TCA development).

I am excited to taste my Merlot wine I am aging in this barrel. Conditioning instructions were very informative and worked amazingly well. Quality craftsmanship for this cooper. The instruction state there may be some variance on volume size; however, the barrel was exact 6.1 gallons. Making six gallons of wine, I needed to add some glass beads to fill with no residual air. I will be purchasing more of these barrels.

These barrels are great. I have two of them, one for kits and one for those that have undergone malolactic fermentation. The second one was broken in by fermenting a chardonnay and has since had reds. I'm stepping up my production of wines from grapes and will be getting a 30L or 50L soon. I highly recommend.

Broke this barrel when new with a chardonnay ferment in barrel which turned out excellent. Since then I've rotated a couple of reds through and its still giving up the oak. I plan to retire my larger French oak barrel in the next year or two and will replace it with another Hungarian barrel from MoreWine. Would recommend getting the glass marbles so you can take up the air space as needed when doing small batches.

This is the second ~6-gal barrel I've purchased. Unlike the first, this one came with hoops tightened and held in place with small L-shaped nails. Excellent instructions for sealing. The barrel also came with a wooden bung/stopper/whatever. I ordered the premium breathable stopper recommended on the More Wine site. However, this stopper turned out to be way too big for the hole. I later got an 8-1/2 stopper that fits perfect. Overall, I'm very pleased with this barrel and will probably buy more.